ZaZ - Autumn 3.15

Testing CB instead of BCB, inspired by Kickback.

Hi Zaz,

I hope you’re doing well. I’ve been following your work on FM Arena for a while, and I really appreciate the consistency and quality of your tactics, especially how well they perform across different patches.

I’m currently running a long-term save with Wolves on FM26.3, and I’m trying to build a system around a target forward (Lorenzo Lucca type profile). I know it’s not exactly the most meta-friendly approach, but I’d really like to make it work competitively rather than just defaulting to a strikerless or full meta setup.

I’ve tested a few things myself, including adapting existing top tactics and running some simulations, but I feel like I’m missing a deeper understanding of what really makes a system stable in the match engine.

If you don’t mind me asking:

Do you think a target forward–focused system can realistically compete with the current meta in 26.3?

When you test tactics, what are the key indicators you trust the most beyond raw results?

Would you recommend starting from a proven meta base and adjusting it, or building something more custom from scratch in this case?

I’d really appreciate any insight or advice you’re willing to share. Thanks again for all the work you put into the community.

All the best,
Alexam

Alexam said: Hi Zaz,

I hope you’re doing well. I’ve been following your work on FM Arena for a while, and I really appreciate the consistency and quality of your tactics, especially how well they perform across different patches.

I’m currently running a long-term save with Wolves on FM26.3, and I’m trying to build a system around a target forward (Lorenzo Lucca type profile). I know it’s not exactly the most meta-friendly approach, but I’d really like to make it work competitively rather than just defaulting to a strikerless or full meta setup.

I’ve tested a few things myself, including adapting existing top tactics and running some simulations, but I feel like I’m missing a deeper understanding of what really makes a system stable in the match engine.

If you don’t mind me asking:

Do you think a target forward–focused system can realistically compete with the current meta in 26.3?

When you test tactics, what are the key indicators you trust the most beyond raw results?

Would you recommend starting from a proven meta base and adjusting it, or building something more custom from scratch in this case?

I’d really appreciate any insight or advice you’re willing to share. Thanks again for all the work you put into the community.

All the best,
Alexam Expand

Thank you, Alexan.

About your question, tactics with striker cannot compete with the current meta, unfortunately. That does not mean they are useless, just that they perform worse, but you can still overperform (have a win rate higher than expectation) with them. However, target forward usually perform worse than other strikers, both as a role in the tactic, as well as a profile in players. Pace and acceleration are the attributes with highest impact in performance, and unless the target player is fast like Haaland, they will not perform as well as other fast players.

With that being said, my advice is for you to simply play the game the way you want. You can still overperform even with a target player, and there is not much issue if you are playing single player. The top rated tactic in FM-Arena has 73% win rate, while the top rated tactic with a striker has 69%. There is a difference, but it is not as massive as it was in the earlier patches. I still recommend you to aim for fast target players like Haaland, but I understand that is not an easy profile to find.

So, my suggestion is to get the top tactic with a striker and change the role to target forward, and see how it goes. You can submit the tactic to be tested and see how it compares, if you are interested.

About key indicators, the most important to me are points and goal difference. If you want to improve the defense of a tactic, you can check goals conceded, and if you want to improve the attack, you can check goals scored.